xref: /openbmc/u-boot/test/README (revision 4a2b2724)
1Testing in U-Boot
2=================
3
4U-Boot has a large amount of code. This file describes how this code is
5tested and what tests you should write when adding a new feature.
6
7
8Running tests
9-------------
10
11To run most tests on sandbox, type this:
12
13    test/run
14
15in the U-Boot directory. Note that only the pytest suite is run using this
16command.
17
18
19Sandbox
20-------
21U-Boot can be built as a user-space application (e.g. for Linux). This
22allows test to be executed without needing target hardware. The 'sandbox'
23target provides this feature and it is widely used in tests.
24
25
26Pytest Suite
27------------
28
29Many tests are available using the pytest suite, in test/py. This can run
30either on sandbox or on real hardware. It relies on the U-Boot console to
31inject test commands and check the result. It is slower to run than C code,
32but provides the ability to unify lots of tests and summarise their results.
33
34You can run the tests on sandbox with:
35
36	./test/py/test.py --bd sandbox --build
37
38This will produce HTML output in build-sandbox/test-log.html
39
40See test/py/README.md for more information about the pytest suite.
41
42
43tbot
44----
45
46Tbot provides a way to execute tests on target hardware. It is intended for
47trying out both U-Boot and Linux (and potentially other software) on a
48number of boards automatically. It can be used to create a continuous test
49environment. See tools/tbot/README for more information.
50
51
52Ad-hoc tests
53------------
54
55There are several ad-hoc tests which run outside the pytest environment:
56
57   test/fs	- File system test (shell script)
58   test/image	- FIT and legacy image tests (shell script and Python)
59   test/stdint	- A test that stdint.h can be used in U-Boot (shell script)
60   trace	- Test for the tracing feature (shell script)
61
62TODO: Move these into pytest.
63
64
65When to write tests
66-------------------
67
68If you add code to U-Boot without a test you are taking a risk. Even if you
69perform thorough manual testing at the time of submission, it may break when
70future changes are made to U-Boot. It may even break when applied to mainline,
71if other changes interact with it. A good mindset is that untested code
72probably doesn't work and should be deleted.
73
74You can assume that the Pytest suite will be run before patches are accepted
75to mainline, so this provides protection against future breakage.
76
77On the other hand there is quite a bit of code that is not covered with tests,
78or is covered sparingly. So here are some suggestions:
79
80- If you are adding a new uclass, add a sandbox driver and a test that uses it
81- If you are modifying code covered by an existing test, add a new test case
82  to cover your changes
83- If the code you are modifying has not tests, consider writing one. Even a
84  very basic test is useful, and may be picked up and enhanced by others. It
85  is much easier to add onto a test - writing a new large test can seem
86  daunting to most contributors.
87
88
89Future work
90-----------
91
92Converting existing shell scripts into pytest tests.
93